Month: July 2018

The fourth book in the Charles Holborne series was published by Urbane Publications on 21 June 2018. Waterstones Piccadilly offered their flagship store for the launch. A group of very talented professional actors (and a couple of enthusiastic amateurs) performed a courtroom scene from the book, and we enjoyed fizz and canapes with a fantastic soundtrack from the relevant year, 1965. That year was a classic: Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman; The Beach Boys I Get Around; Beatles A Hard day’s Night; Manfred Mann Do Wah Diddy Diddy; Martha Reeves and the Vandelas Dancing In The Street; The Animals House Of The Rising Sun; The Drifters Under The Boardwalk; Dionne Warwick Walk On By – I could go on. But everyone was tapping a foot and a few brave souls danced.

That was followed by a short tour up and down (and up again – poor planning by me) the country, with One Man Shows in Nantwich, Newcastle, Northampton, Hitchin and Leeds and radio/TV appearances in several. My grateful thanks go to Steve and Denise at Nantwich Bookshop and Coffee Lounge; Kay at the Newcastle Lit&Phil Library; Mikey at Waterstones Northampton; Bekah and Brendan at Hitchin Library and Waterstones respectively and Gwyneth at Leeds Sinai Synagogue. Some of the better photos follow.

And, to top it all, these are the first 10 reviews from Amazon:

“This is a series that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend and if you haven’t had the chance to read any yet then I urge you to do so”

“Another cracking thriller and I can’t praise these books enough”

“If you read one of the Charles Holborne books, you’ll definitely want to read them all”

“The pinnacle of crime writing; dark, gritty and brilliant”

“Simon Michael is a true master of his art. Highly recommended”

“An excellent read, and Simon Michael’s writing continues to be honed and perfected”